From the heart of Deacon Doug.
Orange County Cursillo | communications@occursillo.org | occursillo.org Today is All Souls Day, a day when our Church tradition invites us to pray for the people who have died and are in Purgatory. Purgatory is not, as many people think, a place where a vindictive God sends us to punish us a Read more
Orange County Cursillo | communications@occursillo.org | occursillo.org The feast of All Saints was instituted to honor all Saints both known and unknown. It owes its origin in the western church to the dedication of the Roman Pantheon in honor of Mary and all the martyrs by Pope Boniface IV in the year 609. Read more
Orange County Cursillo | communications@occursillo.org | occursillo.org What is true humility and why should we make it a characteristic of our lives? True humility is not feeling bad about yourself or having a low opinion of yourself or thinking of yourself as being inferior to others. True humility frees us to be our true Read more
Orange County Cursillo | communications@occursillo.org | occursillo.org In today’s Gospel, Jesus finds himself once again in front of the Pharisees on the Sabbath, where they were “Observing him carefully”. There happens to be a man there with Dropsy, which to the Pharisees meant he was “unclean”. This was obviously a setup to see if Read more
Orange County Cursillo | communications@occursillo.org | occursillo.org Most of us would agree that the world today is characterized by division and disagreement more than by unity and common values. There are so many different viewpoints we see expressed especially as we near our presidential election. These viewpoints are held and expressed so strongly to Read more
Orange County Cursillo | communications@occursillo.org | occursillo.org Today is the feast day of two of the twelve apostles, Sts. Simon and Jude. Considering their importance you would think we would know a lot about them. In fact we know very little. We don’t even know why we celebrate their feast day together except perhaps they Read more
In Old Testament times and in the time of Jesus, belonging to a group meant everything. People didn’t have networks or agencies like health insurance, welfare or social security to help them in time of need that we depend upon today. You belonged to a tribe or a particular town and it Read more
In today’s Gospel, Jesus heals a woman that has been crippled by an evil spirit for 18 years, however his loving and merciful act infuriated the Pharisees because he did it on the Sabbath. They were so focused on their own laws, that they didn’t understand the miracle that happened Read more
One common and important source of food for those who lived in Galilee and Judea was the fig tree. Its fruit was highly prized and became a symbol for the people of God’s fruitful love for them. A fig tree normally matured within three years and began to produce much fruit. If not Read more
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is pointing out to the crowds that they know how to read and understand the physical world, like something so unpredictable as the weather, but they cannot read and understand the spiritual world right in front of them. He chastises them for not knowing that they Read more